The Bored Ape Yatch Club has decided to follow the generosity of its community by sending $1 million in cryptocurrencies to Ukraine. The donation is symbolic in that it represents the equivalent of all that would have been sent by investors with a Bored Ape.
Bored Ape Yatch Club doubles down to support Ukraine
In the multitude of donations in various cryptocurrencies that have poured in for Ukraine on the various addresses, a total of $1 million has reportedly been sent in by holders of a Bored Ape non-fungible token (NFT).
The Bored Ape Yatch Club has doubled its community’s stake by also sending $1 million in solidarity to Ukraine:
It’s been inspiring seeing our community come together in support of Ukraine – almost $1m in ETH has been donated to @Ukraine by wallets containing a BAYC ecosystem NFT. Today we’re matching that with a $1m ETH donation of our own. ️
– Bored Ape Yacht Club (@BoredApeYC) March 8, 2022
According to the transaction hash, nearly 389 ETH were sent to the donation address. According to Merkle Science, this brings the total crypto donations to nearly $89 million.
Donations on the Ethereum blockchain (ETH) alone account for 40% of this total, followed by 29% from Bitcoin (BTC). The Ukrainian government’s Ethereum address has also received numerous NFT donations, including Crypto Punk number 5364 last week.
The difficulty of selling NFTs
The major drawback of NFT donations is the problem of liquidity. Indeed, since they are unique by definition, they cannot be sold in a few seconds on an order book as a cryptocurrency would.
This means that even if the theoretical value of one of these assets is high, there is no guarantee that the Ukrainian government will be able to sell it quickly and at a good price. This is the issue that was raised by Alex Bornyakov, the Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, following the donation of Crypto Punk:
On 03/01, someone donated a cryptopunk No. 5364 by @larvalabs to Ukraine.
It’s 56 ETH (around $150k).
People ask if it helps. Two points. 1 – it’s hard to cash it out. 2 – it’s a big deal since it engages more people who belong to the community. Thank you, cryptofolks!
– Alex Bornyakov (@abornyakov) March 5, 2022
With this in mind, the Bored Ape Yatch Club has chosen to donate cash so that it is instantly available to support the war effort.
In any case, whether in the form of NFTs or cryptocurrencies, the last ten days have seen a paradigm shift in the way donations are made internationally. This quick response has actually allowed Ukraine to start using these cryptocurrencies to cover the various expenses related to the war.
